Recent content by Gorgon Zee

I'll amplify this a bit. Not only is it not a requirement, but it can also be a simplistic or even lazy way to end a story. I feel that the best form of horror is when you could have succeeded, but failed to. Or you survive at a cost that is so high that death would have been preferable. I have...

Starting a mini-campaign tonight, and planning to do what I usually do, which is: Give a general intro to the world and what the story is about. Tell them that as we create characters to think about why you are committed to this story Roll up characters Ask them to write down the reason they...

So, I have been running the GREAT PENDRAGON CAMPAIGN, currently at around session 50 or so. In about 7 sessions we will have the battle of Camlann, in which Arthur, most of the round table knights, and all my player knights, will die. It's one of the only two events that I told my players from...

D&D 4E really did set the standard for this. It's the only system where I have been able to build combats based entirely on the guidelines and nearly always have a fun encounter. Some people will ding the system for being same-y an d suggest that that is the reason it works, but it's only same-y...

I started this year 60% through running Pendragon's THE GREAT PENDRAGON CAMPAIGN. I ended the year 90% through. I started this year half a dozen sessions into a One Ring MORIA campaign and ended the year havbing run about 15 more sessions in. It was a year of "continuing to do the thing"

We also roll up characters after discussing the genre and tone of the game we are running. And that makes a big difference. So, if I was in a PF2 AP, and for some reason we had decided to roll stats, the GM would likely allow a re-roll, as a character with such a low stat would have much less...

Well, I think I'd disagree that FATE was ever the biggest non-D&D system, but as a person who runs FATE quite often, the biggest issue with it is that it doesn't need you to buy stuff for it. FATE is easy to make do pretty much any genre or system, so it's hard to sell extra things for. So when...

HILLFOLK: D&D is all about resolving actions and has minimal ability to run a game about people's relationships. Hillfolk is all about resolving Drama. Run this to show that TTRPG's can be about relationships. AMBER: A number of strong differences. I would run this to show a unique way of...

I think this is simply an artifact of the fact that most games are designed to focus on combat. D&D, obviously, but honestly we still tend to play that way in man genres. But I do feel that it's just a design decision about how what you want to focus on. So in a standard d20 fantasy game you...

Yep — I would paraphrase your thought by saying that you consider only the ability to change the fiction a meaningful decision, not the mechanics by which that is achieved. Trying to tie this sidebar back to the main thread, it would be good design then to allow a trap to be overcome by multiple...

Agreed. But your statement was "there is no player agency, no decision-making", which I disagreed with. I do agree that the type of decision is different and I agree it could be a lot better. I personally fix with the simple statement that if you can think of a better skill to use, I'll...

Well, this is a standard skill check so there are actually a number of choices to be made, and some RP also. Additionally there are occasional other choices Obviously, there is the often tricky choice of whether or not to spend hope to improve your chances. Classic RPG decision on balancing...

As a general design principle, I like to have any game effect have at least two ways to interact with it, one which is mostly player-focused -- being able to intuit and apply cleverness, and one being character-focused -- mostly making tests. So my typical trap would have signposts well ahead...

My resolutions are: Catch up on write-ups of the last 6-8 sessions of my Great Pendragon Campaign, and stay up-to-date as I finish it off sometime around March/April Run a one shot of Ten Candles (and stop trying to make that happen around Hallowe'en. After 3 years of trying, just run it...

I feel that people should not celebrate anything without acknowledging that what you are celebrating may be a source of pain and harm to others. For me, Thanksgiving is a celebration of things to be thankful for, and a time to remind myself to be thankful. It is emphatically not a celebration of...